Nirmal Kumari Mahalanobis

Nirmal Kumari Mahalanobis (; 24 October 1900 – 13 March 1981) was an Indian author who wrote memoirs dedicated to Rabindranath Tagore. She was the wife of P. C. Mahalanobis, an Indian statistician and the founder of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Calcutta. She also had been a close support companion of Tagore, especially in the last years of his life. The memoirs of conversations between them are well documented in her book, Kobi and Rani.

Early life Mahalanobis was born on 24 October 1900 in Calcutta, British Raj. Her father was the Bengali educationalist, Heramba Chandra Moitra who also had been a member of Brahmo Samaj. In Calcutta, she met with the scientist, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis with whom she married on 27 February 1923. This move was met with initial resistance by Heramba, her father who was infuriated with P. C. Mahalanobis showing opposition to various clauses of membership of the student wing of the Brahmo Samaj, including prohibition against the members' smoking and drinking. Therefore, Sir Nilratan Sarkar, had been present at the wedding in place of the father of the bride. Rabindranath Tagore had also been present during the wedding. He had gifted to the couple the original manuscript of his recently published work, Basanta. Dedicating his work to them, Tagore wrote on its first page:

Mahalanobis' family lived in the Baranagar house called "Sashi Villa" that is situated at 265/19, Gopal Lal Tagore Road, Baranagar. It was often visited by Tagore as it's the place where he wrote few of his poems. In 1960, the house was renovated as Mukh Bodhir Vidyalaya ("School of Deaf and Dumb").

At the time when P. C. Mahalanobis worked at Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Tagore also lived in Alipore observatory building with the Mahalanobis' from 1923 to 1928. Despite having a room for himself, he preferred to write his poems under the shade of a banyan tree. Today the observatory has been changed to a museum but the banyan tree is still preserved in its place.

Career In 1926, both Prasanta and Nirmal Mahalanobis toured with Rabindranath Tagore on a seven month long trip to different countries in Europe which included Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania and Greece. Mahalanobis had travelled with her later husband, P. C. Mahalanobis and Tagore to different countries in Europe and to South India including Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) the accounts of which were also written by her.

Kobi and Rani The memoirs of the above mentioned travels are well written in her book (in Bengali) that was published in 1941 long after Tagore's death. In it their travel anthology is divided into two parts namely, Kobir Shongey Europey (transl. With the poet in Europe) and Kabir Shongey Dakshinattey (transl. With the poet in South India). It also includes the translated 60 letters called Pathe o Pather Pranthe (transl. On the road and beyond it) that Tagore wrote to Rani Mahalanobis out of a total of 500 that he wrote to Rani in his lifetime.

A month before Tagore died, he remembered Mahalanobis as given in the preface to Kabir Shongey Dakshinattey,

The book had been translated by Somdatta Mondal, former English professor at Viswa-Bharati university which was established by Tagore with funds from US and Europe; and adopted Oriental (Gurukul) education system for the students.

Baishe Srabon This book was written by Mahalanobis as a tribute to the infamous day on which Tagore died while being surrounded by Mahalanobis and his servant. In it the events leading to Tagore's failing health, his last wish and the events following his death are all recorded. According to Mahalanobis, Tagore's last wish right before he died on 7 August 1941 was to leave his corpse in free will to the ground in Shantiniketan, his birth place. thumb Baishe Srabon This wish unfortunately could not be fulfilled as the Jorasanko house was forced open and the grieving crowd had entered which then took him away for last rites just as a huge populace waiting outside was grieving his demise.

Indian Statistical Institute In the annual reports of ISI, it is stated that Rani Mahalanobis made donations to ISI which led to Raj Chandra Bose getting the part time scholarship to study in the institute. It was with this scholarship that R. C. Bose made out the Mahalanobis D2 statistic. The Mahalanobis' family also hosted distinguished scientists and their families at the time.

Legacy P. C. and Rani Mahalanobis with Tagore in Oslo, Norway, 1926 In 2024, as a part of 3 day long celebration of Tagore's achievements at Kolkata Centre for Creativity, a rare collection of photos and other memorabilia during Tagore's Europe tour and Mahalanobis' residences was put on display. One of these images include a group photo of Tagore, Prasanta Mahalanobis, Rani Mahalanobis, Satyendra Prasanna Sinha and Andrea Butchenson in Oslo, 1926. Another item put on display was a tribute to Tagore for naming Mahalanobis house as Netrakona. One page from the manuscript of Baishe Srabon was also shown.

On the first floor of ISI, the chatal (the open lounge), the study room and the residential rooms of P. C. and Rani Mahalanobis are reinstated in order to give an authentic impression of the period in 1920s.